Western Washington University Western CEDAR WWU Graduate School Collection WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship Summer 2021 Revaluating the use of mollusks for estimating paleodepth in the Pacific Northwest E Worthington Western Washington University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet Part of the Geology Commons Recommended Citation Worthington, E, "Revaluating the use of mollusks for estimating paleodepth in the Pacific Northwest" (2021). WWU Graduate School Collection. 1051. https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet/1051 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in WWU Graduate School Collection by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Revaluating the use of mollusks for estimating paleodepth in the Pacific Northwest By E. N. Worthington Accepted in Partial Completion of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Dr. Robyn Dahl, Chair Dr. Doug Clark Dr. Brady Foreman GRADUATE SCHOOL David Patrick, Dean Master’s Thesis In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master’s degree at Western Washington University, I grant to Western Washington University the non-exclusive royalty-free right to archive, reproduce, distribute, and display the thesis in all forms, including electronic format, via any digital library mechanisms maintained by WWU. I represent and warrant this is my original work and does not infringe or violate any rights of others. I warrant that I have obtained written permissions from the owner of any third party copyrighted material included in these files. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of this work, including but not limited to the right to use all or part of this work in future works, such as articles or books. Library users are granted permission for individual, research, and non-commercial reproduction of this work for educational purposes only. Any further digital posting of this document requires specific permission from the author. Any copying or publication of this thesis for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, is not allowed without my written permission. E. N. Worthington 8/18/21 ii Revaluating the use of mollusks for estimating paleodepth in the Pacific Northwest A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Western Washington University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science by E. N. Worthington August 18, 2021 iii Abstract Fossil records have the potential to extract important paleoenvironmental records, and by ground truthing our assumptions with modern mollusks we can improve our interpretations of the fossil record. Modern molluscan death assemblages from Rosario Strait were analyzed to: 1) determine to what extent the molluscan communities were controlled by grain size or depth; and 2) determine the extent to which age mixing was occurring in the death assemblage. Twenty-eight Van Veen grab samples were collected in Rosario Strait to represent range of depth and grain sizes. All samples were wet sieved to isolate mature mollusks (> 2.00 mm), and sediment samples were freed of biologic material and grain size determined using the Mastersizer. The proportions of mud, silt, and sand were recorded to determine grain size of the benthic habitat. Northern Arizona University Amino Acid Geochronology Laboratory determined the D/L ratios of several amino acids for the selection of bivalves sent to them using High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Analysis. D/L concentrations of aspartic acid (Asp) and alanine (Ala) were relatively consistent for Cyclocardia (Cy), Chlamys (Ch), and Macoma (Ma) both within a single genus at a single site (intra-site) and between a single genus at multiple sites (inter-site). Intra-site variability of Asp was on average 0.031 (Cy), 0.007 (Ch), and 0.006 (Ma); the intra-site variability of Ala was on average 0.008 (Cy), 0.004 (Ch), and 0.024 (Ma). Inter-site variability of Asp was on average 0.007 (Cy), 0.068 (Ch), and 0.085 (Ma); the inter-site variability of Ala was on average 0.013 (Cy), 0.036 (Ch), and 0.081 (Ma). This indicates that there is some amount of age mixing occurring at the sample sites. Nuculana displayed relatively higher intra-site variability with the average difference 0.062 for Asp and 0.064 for Ala but had inter-site variability similar to the other genera with the average difference being 0.063 for Asp and 0.042 for Ala. This indicates that the genus Nuculana has larger intraspecies D/L concentration variability and is therefore less suitable for AAR analysis; samples that have an exact age through 14C or 210Pb dating would be useful. The molluscan death assemblages of Rosario Strait were dominated by Macoma (up to 77%), Nutricola (up to 41%), and Calyptraea (up to 12%). Grain size was not correlated with the presence/absence of genera nor their abundance. These results suggest that grain size played a smaller role than initially hypothesized in the molluscan community composition of Rosario Strait. Previous studies that assumed depth was the primary control on species composition used species composition to estimate Pleistocene paleodepth. The paleodepth was then used to calculate ice thickness, which was used to calculate changes in sea level. I found no basis in the death assemblage data for this proxy and that mollusks should not be used as the primary evidence for paleodepth interpretations. iv Acknowledgements I would like to begin by acknowledging that I lived and worked on the ancestral homelands of the Coast Salish Peoples, who have lived in the Salish Sea basin, throughout the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades watershed, from time immemorial. I want to express my deepest respect and gratitude for our Indigenous neighbors, the Lummi Nation, Nooksack Tribe, Samish Indian Nation, and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community for their enduring care and protection of our shared lands and waterways. This work was partially supported by NSF/GSA Graduate Student Geoscience Grant # 12765-20, which is funded by NSF Award # 1949901. This work was partially supported by funds from the Western Washington University Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP) and the Geology Department’s departmental advance. Ben Paulson made all lab work possible and helped develop this project. Brady, Doug, and Allison: your comments and edits were invaluable. I also need to acknowledge Katie, Katie, Jess, Kiana, Erin, Ryan, and Carmi for their unrelenting support, encouragement, and edits. v Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ iv Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ v List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... vii Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 Geologic Setting .................................................................................................................... 3 Salish Sea Mollusks ............................................................................................................... 5 Methods ................................................................................................................................ 7 Shell identification ........................................................................................................................8 Grain size analysis ...................................................................................................................... 11 Results ................................................................................................................................ 12 Grain size.................................................................................................................................... 12 Species richness .......................................................................................................................... 12 Predation .................................................................................................................................... 14 Amino-acid racemization ............................................................................................................ 14 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 16 Conclusions......................................................................................................................... 19 Future Work ....................................................................................................................... 19 References........................................................................................................................... 38 vi List of Figures Figure 1. Map of sample locations and place names referenced in text…………………………21 Figure 2. Summary of previous research………………………………………………………...22 Figure 3. Labeled parts of a bivalve shell………………………………………………………..22